


The Hardest Goodbye You'll Ever Have to Face

by Williamsaysgayrights



Category: Campaign (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, its in that bracket, spoilers for i guess 91 up to 97?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:35:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29542443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Williamsaysgayrights/pseuds/Williamsaysgayrights
Summary: Travis tells Gable about Margaret, and they try their hardest to offer comfort to the person left behind
Relationships: Gable & Travis Matagot, past margaret/travis
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	The Hardest Goodbye You'll Ever Have to Face

**Author's Note:**

> SO EP 97 HUH
> 
> Travis referring to William as a completely different person has ruined me and the brainrot turned me into a writer, yet again. So much happened but i had to get this out before i became half a person.
> 
> Thannk you to Jack (DrowningInStarlight) for editing once again - i say this every time but i would be lost without you <3
> 
> Title from Farewell Wanderlust by the Amazing Devil

Gable knows Travis doesn’t  _ do _ emotions. They have, after all, spent the last ninety five years watching him hide them away behind a smirk or a good hand in illimat. But when they walk into an inn at midday and lock eyes with him, they immediately know something is very, very wrong. 

It’s in the way he doesn’t look at them beside a short glance, no smile on his face as he sips his drink. He puts down some cards, winning whatever game he’s playing as his opponent curses. He very briefly smiles at that, but it passes quickly. Too quickly. 

His opponent downs the rest of their drink before stomping away, and Gable comes over to take their seat. Travis still doesn’t look up at them, just pushing a drink across the table towards them as he collects his cards. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” he starts, looking at the cards intently in a way that Gable has seen before. He’s ignoring something important, and their concern only grows. “I almost thought you weren’t coming.”

Gable fakes a laugh to watch him smile as he finishes gathering up the cards. He glances up at them for a second and the smile fades, almost like he’s expecting someone else to be in their place, laughing along with him. Gable has no idea who he’s looking for, wouldn’t even know where to begin guessing. It’s  _ terrifying _ , how scared he is to be honest with them. 

Travis begins to shuffle the illimat deck, but fumbles, two cards falling out face-up on the table. The top one is the River, and Gable doesn’t miss Travis’s flinch as goes to take it. He grabs it so fast Gable almost misses it, going to tuck it back into the deck before he freezes as he sees the card below.

It’s the Maiden, and Gable doesn’t know what that means. From the way Travis looks at the sight of it, they guess it’s more important than they could ever know. 

His fingers tremble as he picks it up, handling the card with a gentleness Gable has never seen on him before. He tucks it back into the deck as he turns away, and it’s with a cold kind of shock that they realise he’s  _ crying _ , trying to hide it in any way he can. They feel powerless to help him, but suddenly they’re desperate to break the silence that’s fallen between to  _ try, _ at least. 

“What’s... wrong?” they ask hesitantly. 

He jumps, clearly lost in thought as he loosely holds the illimat deck like it’s a curse that he can’t bear to hold closer. He finally looks back at Gable, and the expression on his face makes them think he’d expected them to be gone. 

He opens his mouth several times before settling on a sentence. “Did I, uh... did I ever tell you about William?”

Of course he had. They’d met when he  _ was  _ William, but something in Gable holds back telling him that, very aware of how he talks of the name. It was one he used not too long ago, and they’ve never stopped considering him to be, on some level,  _ William _ . But apparently, he has. 

Travis looks around the inn, surveying the amount of people and the increase in noise. Both of them know better than to assume safety, though - after almost a century, learning when it’s safe to speak openly isn’t a gift but a survival mechanism. 

“Not here,” Travis sighs. “I won a room a few games ago. Let’s go upstairs.” He grabs his things and quickly walks away, leaving Gable to scramble after him with their drinks. 

They close the door behind them as they enter. Travis has lain down in the middle of the bed. He’s on his back, staring at the ceiling with so much pain in his eyes that Gable wants to hug him.  _ That’s a little too much _ , they think, instead walking over and nudging his leg with theirs as they put the drinks down on the bedside table. He rolls onto his side, staring out the window as Gable sits beside him. 

“So… William?” They gently prompt, ignoring the way he flinches at the name. There’s silence for a moment as Gable lets him think before he suddenly sits up, leaning over to grab both of their drinks and finish them off in one go each, setting the glasses aside. 

“Um… he was… well. You know,” he says, and Gable does, had gripped William by the throat and watched him die during the nights they’d spent together. But they stay silent, their only movement a hand on his back that he weakly smiles about. 

“He had a wife. She was called… she was called Margaret.” He chokes on the name, tears welling up in his eyes as he still doesn’t look at Gable. They won’t force him to, but it aches to know they can’t smile at him and help take away some of the burden - all they can do is take his hand and hold on. 

He breathes in, holding onto Gable’s hand so tightly it hurts. It’s as if he expects them to let go and leave, but they won’t, holding on tighter. Sure, Travis is, well, the worst, but this is different. This is different. His next words come quickly, almost like they’re water being expelled from the lungs of a drowning man.

“She, um. She drowned. And it… it was today. A long time ago today, but… it’s been almost a century and I still… You know.” 

His voice breaks on so many of the words, but when he exhales, it’s lighter, as if the weight of the current is lifted and he’s broken the surface of the water to just  _ breathe _ . 

Gable’s free hand slides around his waist to hug him to their side as best they can, leaning down to rest their head on his shoulder. “What was she like?” they ask, smiling at the soft, sad laugh Travis lets out. 

They ignore the way it turns into a sob, holding tighter to his hand as he does the same, grounded by each other’s company for the first time in their shared lives. 

“She was  _ everything _ . I don’t think that William… that  _ I’ve  _ ever loved someone as much as he loved her. And then she was gone, just another person I couldn’t save. I didn’t ever expect  _ her _ to become just another person—”

His free hand comes up to wipe his eyes, but Gable is faster - they pull away from their position and take his wrist, pulling it back down to rest in his lap. They reach up to cup his cheek, stroking it with their thumb to wipe away the tears. He looks at them then, and Gable sees the pain he’s trying so hard to push down overflow. 

It makes them want to brave the river, to find Margaret and bring her back just so they can watch him smile again. 

But they can’t, so instead they sit and wait for him to continue, watching him shakily breathe through sobs he can’t hold back no matter how hard he tries. “If I’d just  _ held on _ , maybe she’d still be here, maybe William would be here too. I… they were  _ so _ happy, Gable, I—”

He cuts himself off, and can’t seem to regain his composure, breaking down in their arms and clinging onto them like a lifeline. Gable’s hand on his face slips away to pull him into a hug as best they can while still grasping his hand, holding him tightly and letting him grieve over the lives lost to the river. 

They hold him for what feels like forever, but that’s okay. Immortality means that time isn’t an issue, not for people like them. 

Eventually, he seems to have cried everything he has, pulling back to look Gable in the eyes shakily. The silence returns again, more comfortable this time as they stare, suddenly more aware of the other in a way neither of them ever have been. He leans forward to rest his head on their shoulder as they pull him in tighter, his free hand reaching around to take the one still resting on his waist. 

In all their time together, they’d never been  _ this _ , close enough to mourn together and antagonise each other in the interim. But Gable knows life isn’t simple - they’re all the other can safely say they have, and the thought that crosses their mind makes them ache. 

_ Is it selfish to want this forever? _

  
  


——

  
  


Travis falls asleep like that, in Gable’s arms, only waking up as the sun sets and his change begins. Gable holds him through it, trying to soothe his cries and screams as his bones break over and over again. Soon enough, there’s a rabbit curled up in their lap, already starting to fall asleep again as they stroke a hand gently through his fur. 

Gable lies back, pulling a half-asleep Travis onto the pillow beside them and watching him as he falls asleep. They can’t bring Margaret back - the river doesn’t allow that, no matter how hard someone begs for the people they’ve lost to return. But as they begin to drift off, stroking a hand over Travis’ back, Gable makes a promise they don’t yet know will tear them apart. 

_ I’m not going to let you die alone.  _

  
  


——

  
  


Travis pretends it never happened the next morning, already awake and lounging in a chair beside the bed as Gable opens their eyes. They hadn’t heard him change back into a man, but the grin on his face suggests that he’s had enough time to adjust himself. 

The grin  _ also _ suggests trickery, and Gable’s eyes instinctively dart down to their wrist. Of course, their watch is missing, and they groan at the grin growing wider on Travis’ face. There’s no trace of the man who cried in their arms last night, and Gable doesn’t know how that makes them feel. 

They toss insults back and forth as they get ready to leave, their usual relationship easy enough to fall back into despite the discomfort Gable feels at where they left off the night before. Eventually, Travis turns to leave, but Gable grabs his wrist as he reaches for the door. 

The startled way he looks at them would be funny if he didn’t look  _ terrified _ , Gable realises, loosening their hold slightly to give him space. 

“I don’t think she’d want you to blame yourself,” they say, and his eyes grow wider. They can still see the lingering sadness he’s so desperately trying to hide, and Gable wants nothing more than to  _ help. _ But they don’t know how, and they don’t think he’d let them, so they just stroke their thumb across the back of his hand and hope it’s enough. 

“... yeah,” he whispers. “I know.”

  
  


——

  
  


Almost a century later, Travis introduces Gable to a woman, and the name she gives brings them back to that night instantly. Their glance at Travis doesn’t go unnoticed by Margaret, who looks between them with a smile on her face. In Travis’ eyes, Gable can see him begging for something, and they realise quickly it’s their  _ silence _ he’s so desperately asking for _. _

He knows they remember that night too, and it breaks their heart. 

But if he’s asking for their silence, he can have it. If he’s using this to cope with the weight of the water, he can afford to be selfish for once. 

It isn’t her, after all. 


End file.
